


Stunde Null

by Sodium_Hypochlorite



Category: Gugudan (Band)
Genre: Angst, F/F, Family, Post-War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-10
Updated: 2017-06-10
Packaged: 2018-11-06 15:32:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11039076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sodium_Hypochlorite/pseuds/Sodium_Hypochlorite
Summary: Post War AU.She wakes up to the taste of chalky bitterness, scoffing out powdery white specks of dust. She mutters a curse under her breathe before trying to rub her face clean with hands covered in ashes. She laughs at her attempt and looks up into the smoke ridden sky, searching for light. Her eyes linger for quite a bit, but it wasn't because she had hope. After all, hope was dead. But death, death was searching for them in the skies with poisonous gas and armed artillery.





	Stunde Null

She wakes up to the taste of chalky bitterness, scoffing out powdery white specks of dust. She mutters a curse under her breathe before trying to rub her face clean with hands covered in ashes. She laughs at her attempt and looks up into the smoke ridden sky, searching for light. Her eyes linger for quite a bit, but it wasn't because she had hope. After all, hope was dead. But death, death was searching for them in the skies with poisonous gas and armed artillery. And so, she had to make sure that they were hidden from it all, that they would live. She scanned the sky one more time and then looked to her side, sighing in relief. The soft sleeping face of her small child made her weary frown curve up into a soft smile. Though her eyes were still dull with tiredness, her heart was filled with love; irrational, unconditional love.

Carefully, the older woman gradually sat up, not wishing to stir her child from her slumber, and started to gather the little things that they had left with them. She first reached for a bag, green but smeared with mud that she hid under a pile of rubble. She peers into the battered sack, to see if everything they had was still there. When she looks through all of its nooks and crannies, she closes the bag and sighs in relief. They were still left with a few bottles of water, expired medicine, and whatever scraps of food that they had found before.

"Lucky again," she whispers.

The older woman chuckles for a bit at the thought of her, of all people, to be lucky. It was almost funny how much people had to die just for her to be considered lucky. But honestly, seven years ago, no one would've thought that she, who was so afraid of everything, would be alive in a world like this. All of her friends would've all thought that she would be the first to die, tripping over a rock and accidentally falling off a cliff. Then again, seven years ago, people could still see the stars in the night sky; they could still live in a world everyone took for granted. Nayoung missed a lot of things from the world before her; she missed her measly studio apartment in the basement floor, her diet of ramen cups, and her coffee ridden nights in which she spent talking to her friends. Of all those things though, what she missed the most was  _her_ , they had started falling in love then, and it seemed like nothing in the world could've gone wrong. Nayoung doesn't know how long it's been since she's last seen her face, but she knows she'll never forget it: that sad bloodied smile she had and how her last words were for her to protect Mina. How could anyone ever forget that?

"Mommy," a meek voice murmurs, breaking the silence, "Mommy, whys aru you crying?"

Nayoung blinks, she lifts her hand to her head and wipes away the tears. She takes a deep breath and she regrets it, the influx of cold air pierces her lungs, making it harder for to not cry. 'Still unlucky', she tells herself and smirks because it feels like the past for just a moment and everything is okay again.

"It's nothing dear, sand just got in my eyes," she softly cooed, "Now now, what do you want for breakfast?"

"Panckes!" the little girl exclaimed with a painfully familiar eye-smile.

The older woman raises her eyebrows at the little girl and the child cowers a little, hiding her face behind her small little fingers. The older woman can't help but giggle and she pulls the child over, giving her a pat on her head, before she shakes her head and tells Mina to choose otherwise.

"Now, you know that we can't have that! Do you want crackers or the apple we found yesterday?"

"Hmm, Se-je-ong Mama all-ways said dat we shuld eat the applr fist, so applr!"

Nayoung gives the child an okay sign and lifts her daughter up and off the ground, giving her a kiss on the forehead somewhere along that line. Mina's eyes widens just a bit but the child squeals, she's delighted with a grin that goes from one end of her chubby baby cheeks to the next. It's not every day that her mom spoils her like this, so moments like this are precious to her. Though, in a few seconds, Nayoung thinks it might attract dangerous attention so she hushes Mina before setting her back to the ground. The little girl is a bit disappointed at this turn of events but she's still beaming from ear to ear and then waddles to her mom to tug on her sleeves and signal for a hug. As always, Nayoung gives in and holds her daughter close to her for a good minute or two before she tells Mina to stay hidden after she goes to prepare something so that they can leave these ruins and perhaps find a better place to stay.

"Mommy needs to go find something, okay? Can you hide for Mommy and eat your apple when I'm gone?"

Mina nods.

"Now, remember to be quiet because we don't want any big nasty strangers to find us now, do we?"

Mina shakes her head and presses a finger against her lips. She was always so obedient and Nayoung couldn't ask for a daughter better than her. As soon as the little girls, who is clutching onto the apple that her mom gave her, hides herself so that she couldn't be seen, Nayoung into the ruins. When she thinks she's far enough, Nayoung kneels and lifts a pocket knife that was strapped to her ankle. Silently, she creeps towards a hole in a hollow wall that she visited yesterday and looks around to see if anyone is there.

The first footstep she takes startles her, it made a slightly loud crunching sound. After that one, she stared at the floor and took steps with extreme caution, carefully angling her feet so that she left as little traces behind as she could. However, to her dismay, a slew of white powder suddenly crumbles off of a building and the silence is broken. Nayoung holds her breath at that moment and quickly, her eyes shift left, right, front, left, right, front, left, right, and front again.

She turns to look behind her as she reaches into the wall. After a few seconds, she almost panics because she can't find it but she reaches farther and she finds it. She puts knife in between her teeth and grabs at the metallic black handle. Her hands fumble for a bit but she eventually stuffs the tool between her belt and pants, securing it with some flimsy strands of string from her pocket. She then has her knife back in her hands once more and crouches back down. A shadow flickers through her sight and Nayoung is alert again, her eyes scan the area once more: left, right, front, behind, left right, front, behind, left, right—she sees something shift ever so slightly behind an old rusted garbage can. 

"3 bullets left," she mutters, as she slowly backs away from the hole in the wall, keeping an eye on the area in which she suspected there may have been movement at.

For 5 minutes, Nayoung keeps her eyes on that spot as she moves back towards where she had left her child. At this point, she decides it's okay for her to turn her back and hurry back and so she does. Everything is fine for a few short periods of time, but then a high pitched piercing scream changes everything. Nayoung looks up at the sky and sees them; they're dressed in black hazmat suits, peering at the town below. And then their hatch opens, one by one, they began to drop down and into the area.

In a static-coated voice, one of them clocked the time.

10 minutes before hour zero. 

The memory of the last time she heard that, she doesn't want to remember, but it flashes in her mind once more; the cool splatter of red had painted her back and her hands covering Mina's eyes; that last look she had at her face that she couldn't bring herself to forget even if she wanted to and the ringing in her ears from more of those bullets as she ran with Mina in her arms. 

A knot in her heart tightens and Nayoung runs, she runs with tears in her eyes and the horrifying image in her head of another one of her loved ones dying. She couldn't let it happen, they were going to kill them—they were going to kill her and she couldn't let it happen.

No, not again, not ever.

Past the broken city and over pieces of fallen piece of buildings she runs, and she's huffing by the time she's back where Mina was hiding and her eyes are wide. In front of her, one of them stood, gun cocked and pointed right at her child's face with one of her finger's is rested on the trigger. Nayoung shouts at this moment and she runs towards her child. The figure is panicked, she's shouting for help from the other bandits that had landed and in the midst of this mess, a blaring string of shots were fired. They popped like sound of fireworks in a midsummer night's dream. They rang in the air, sending a wave sound ricocheting back and forth. They shot through the both of them and a splatter of red was drown on the floor. 

Mina's face became pale then, blood had drained out of her face and Nayoung, a poor poor Nayoung she was indeed. She reached out to her child's face to wipe away the red splattered all over her face and the tears that were slipping down her small little face. She holds her close to her chest as she feels the temperature dropping, she starts to tell Mina that everything was going to be okay.

"Hey, hey there baby girl, its okay," she coos.

Mina shakes her head, clutching onto her arm. Nayoung smiles at her, even though she feels tears start to fall out of her own eyes and ruffles the child's hair for the last time. She raises her arm and points towards the sky, still ridden with grey but there's a light shining through it somewhere in the midst.

"You see that Mina, that's were Mama is and everything's going to be happy, there's nothing to be afraid of there."

She shakes her head again she clutches onto her harder, she buries her face into her chest and wails. It breaks Nayoung's heart to see her like this but there's nothing that she can do this time, all she can do is clutch the gun that's still in her hand, knowing that there' still 2 bullets left. She holds onto it tightly, and she raises it up slowly and steadily.

"Mina, Mina, Mina, my beloved child, Mommy's always going to be there with you, you know that right?"

The blood-covered girl nods and Nayoung gives her a weak smile, she pries Mina off of her for one last time and tells her that she loves her and kisses her on the forehead. She stands up slowly, walking with Mina for a few moments but after a few mere seconds, she staggers, and she's coughing out blood and the hole in her chest becomes to big to ignore. Mina starts wailing again and Nayoung tells her to hush, she holds her close again and starts singing a lullaby to her and Mina's eyes begin to droop and her mother starts to whisper her last words to her. Soon, the child has her eyes shut and Nayoung raises her gun again, she puts in Mina's hands. She clasps them around it and she starts to shiver, her vision becomes blurred, and she starts to remember everything.

 

Nayoung is dying.

 

The hole in her chest, punctured by the bullet, is taking her away and Nayoung doesn't want Mina to see it when she wakes up so she leaves. She limps; she hobbles; she crawls. And when she takes her final breathe, she's away and she thinks she sees Sejeong again so she reaches out for one last time before she falls.

 

The clock strikes zero somewhere and for them, the day has just begun.

**Author's Note:**

> ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


End file.
